Yuzu-miso glazed asparagus tart
plus a paid subscriber giveaway below
Welcome to To Vegetables, With Love, a celebration of a vegetable life, less ordinary. Find archived recipes on my new recipe index.
My book Tenderheart is available from Books are Magic, Kitchen, Arts and Letters, Book Larder, Bold Fork Books and also here or here.
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PAID SUBSCRIBERS: Scroll all the way to the bottom of this newsletter for a special giveaway!
Spring is a busy time for recipe development. It’s the rush just before the Summer break here in the USA. Since we always eat what I test, the diet of a recipe developer and their family is often chaotic - over the past few weeks, our meals have traversed the seasons (particularly since I work across two hemispheres, editorially). Just this week, we have eaten a summery charred eggplant dish, a cooling cold tomato soup, a tangy yogurty chickpea salad, a peach salad and an apple crisp.
The greatest challenge of editorial recipe development - which must be filed months in advance of publication - is when the ingredients themselves are out of season. Most of the time, we are still able to find cold-storage fruits and vegetables at supermarkets, but some of these can be fairly substandard. Take the peach salad for example. I was able to find some peaches at my local supermarket, but I knew just by looking at them that they would not be good. The skin was a wrinkly, and depressed, with slight bruising. When I cut it open, the bruising continued inside and the flesh was mealy. It was a shadow of its summer self. Since it was April in NYC and ripe peaches were off the table, I had little choice but to press ahead. The ensuing peach salad, though, was defiantly delicious, with a smashing dressing and a creamy counterpart. This is how I know a recipe is a keeper - when it is still good, even when made with less-than-stellar produce.
One of my favourite things about this newsletter is that I cook in the moment. It may surprise some, but I do not plan the recipes that I present here. My newsletter planning goes something like this - I wake up on Monday morning and see what I’m craving. It is never difficult to come up with recipes for this space because I am always so inspired to…eat. And the wonderful thing about putting together the recipes in this way is that I can go to the store and see what vegetables look good before I formulate the recipe. Often, recipes are conceived right in the produce section of my coop. Recipe developing like this is very satisfying because it puts me right in the situation of you, the home cook. I am making decisions just like you would, choosing ingredients which look fresh and enticing, thinking of what ingredients I have at home to complement, taking note of what I’m craving. This ‘methodology’ was how a lot of the recipes in TENDERHEART came together - which is why that book is so functional because many of the ideas were born from real life meal time situations.
Speaking of TENDERHEART, some of you may have seen that it was nominated for a James Beard Foundation Award this week. While it is always a huge honor for a book to be recognized by the industry in this way, I feel particularly chuffed that it is this book, about subjects that are the foundation of not only the work that I do, but the person that I am.
Awards can be strange as there is so much excellence out there that never gets awarded and the books that do are just a chosen few from a sea of hard work. So I would like to extend my congratulations to not only all the nominees but to everyone who gives themselves to writing a cookbook.
🥦 My cookbook, Tenderheart is for cooking vegetables, all year round. Pick up your copy here. It is also mostly vegan (or vegan-izable) and gluten-free adaptable.
COOK / EAT / SHARE
There’s a new vegan lentil bolognese ragu over at ABC Everyday this week. It’s rich and intensely flavourful, and an excellent meat free alternative for the family - my kids loved it. Lots of protein too from the lentil base.
I’ve also been enjoying onigiri lately - here is my recipe. This weeknight spinach and ricotta lasagna has been a hit lately. This one pot mushroom pasta is also a sure thing (actor Justin Long mentioned on his podcast that he makes this recipe for his grandmother!).
I met Sonya Gee, my editor at ABC EVERYDAY and the author of this excellent recipe based Substack
, for the first time a couple of weeks ago. We have worked together for seven years (!!), but had never met in real life. It made me think about all the fantastic recipes we have brought to life at ABC EVERYDAY, particularly the super pantry-friendly ones we worked on during the pandemic including this instant noodle fry up, tofu sweetcorn egg drop soup, vegetarian carbonara with mushrooms, miso and parmesan, chilled soba noodle salad with marinated cucumbers, sesame and avocado and so much more.
On the heels of the James Beard Nomination, Lee Tran Lam, an OG Arthur Street Kitchen customer, journalist and friend, reshared this interview I did when Tenderheart first came out in Australia
THIS WEEK’S RECIPE
Rainbow vegetable bowl
© Hetty Lui McKinnon for To Vegetables, With Love
Yuzu is a citrus fruit that has been popularized in Japanese cooking. It’s tart but also has vibrant floral and fruity tones. If a comparison needed to be drawn, I would say tart like grapefruit but sweeter like a mandarin. I usually buy it from Japanese grocery stores; of course, you can substitute with lemon, but add the zest too to give it a fresh citrus punch.
The miso glazed asparagus could easily be enjoyed without the puff pastry, simply as a side dish.
For those in the southern hemisphere where asparagus is not in season, try thinly sliced brussels sprouts.
To veganize this, either use a vegan cream - either homemade cashew cream or store-bought vegan sour cream - or non-dairy feta. For the egg wash, just brush the pastry with non-dairy milk.
Serves 4
1 sheet puff pastry (about 250g / 9-ounces)
113g (4 ounces) goats cheese (or other creamy cheese such as feta, ricotta)
300g (1 bunch) asparagus, woody stems removed
salt and black pepper
4-5 teaspoons sesame seeds
1 egg, beaten with 2 teaspoons of milk
Extra virgin olive oil, for drizzling
Yuzu-Miso glaze
2 tablespoon white (shiro) miso paste
2 tablespoons yuzu juice (or lemon)
1 tablespoon sesame oil
2 teaspoons white sugar
Preheat oven to 220˚C / 425˚F.
To make the glaze, place the miso, yuzu, sesame oil and sugar in a bowl and whisk to combine.
Place the puff pastry on top of a sheet of baking paper, and roll it out so it is wide enough to accommodate the full length of the asparagus spears and long enough to fit all of them.
Using a small knife, lightly score a 2cm (3/4-inch) border around the edge of the puff pastry. Break up half of the goats cheese and scatter it inside the scored border. Line up the asparagus on top of the goats cheese, pressing it down so they sit flat. Brush the yuzu-miso glaze all over the asparagus, covering it well. Season with salt and black pepper.
Brush the border of the pastry with the egg wash. Scatter sesame seeds along the egg washed edge. Carefully transfer the tart onto a baking sheet.
Drizzle a bit of olive oil over everything - the asparagus and the border - and place in the middle rack in the oven. Bake until the pastry is puffed and the border is golden. Remove from the oven and allow to sit for 1-2 minutes, and then brush the asparagus with the remaining glaze (I use it all but that is up to you). Dot the remaining goats cheese on top and allow to cool for 5 minutes (this allows the pastry to settle and makes it easier to cut).
Cut into squares and serve with a side salad or as part of a larger spread.
PAID SUBSCRIBER GIVEAWAY: TENDERHEART COTTON SCARF
This week, I’m giving away two exclusive, not-available-for-sale TENDERHEART scarves. They also make an excellent furoshiki wrap for the book. Simply comment below with your favourite vegetable dish (it can be any dish, doesn’t have to be my recipe!. Winner will be selected at random on Saturday May 11, and you will be notified via Substack direct message. One entry per subscriber.
I made both the weeknight lasagna and the lentil bolognese ragu this week. Both very yummy. Thank-you!!
I'm 36 weeks pregnant and I cannot get enough of Sweetgreen's crispy rice bowl (sub tofu for the chicken and add goat cheese)! I also usually swap the spring mix for kale. I would eat this on a daily basis if my wallet allowed.
But in late summer, corn on the cob with fresh tomatoes and cole slaw is my hands down favorite thing in the entire world!